FLIP-FLOPPER. In 2001, John McCain talked to John Edwards, Tom Daschle, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, and other Democrats about leaving the Republican Party, The Hill reports this morning, but abandoned the idea when Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the GOP and declared himself an Independent. The story is confirmed by former Rep. Tom Downey (D-NY), Daschle, and �a source close to Edwards.� To some swing voters, this news will likely help to harden the ridiculous myth of �maverick� McCain. But this is a great weapon for McCain�s GOP rivals. What grassroots conservative wants to vote for an almost-Democrat?

–Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.